Charcot House Residents' Association

This third instalment of the 1956 Knappertsbusch Ring features Windgassen as Siegfried. He is very much a known quantity, having been Bayreuth’s regular Siegfried during the 1950s and also singing the role in Solti’s studio recording. There he was a last-minute substitute for Ernst Kozub, an impressive Siegmund who had, however, failed to learn the part of Siegfried adequately. Kozub arguably had more of a Heldentenor voice than Windgassen, but that is not much use if you don’t know the role, and that Wingassen certainly did. He also had the stamina to sing it and he does so heroically here, even managing to maintain his own with the Brūnnhilde of Astrid Varnay who arrives fresh in time for the final scene. Mime is Paul Kuen, as it was in Rheingold . Solti kept Kuen in his studio Rheingold but dropped him for Gerhard Stolze in Siegfried (Stolze also recorded Mime in both Rheingold and Siegfried for Karajan.) Stolze had a remarkable voice and his interpretation of Mime...